Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed received at least $25,850 in campaign contributions from six individuals identified as signatories of a 2012 letter supporting Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-led government, according to a report published Thursday, Oct. 22.
The Washington Free Beacon investigation identified campaign donations from individuals whose names appeared alongside El-Sayed’s on the letter, which endorsed actions taken by then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
The disclosure comes less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 election, as El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race.
The 2012 statement, reportedly signed by 46 Egyptian-American community leaders, was published shortly after Morsi granted himself expanded presidential powers amid growing political unrest.
According to the Free Beacon’s earlier examination of the document, the Arabic-language letter identified one signatory as “Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed” of New York.
El-Sayed was attending Columbia University medical school at the time.
“We, leaders of the Egyptian community, support the revolutionary decisions taken by the president, and we call on him to purge the media and the police as quickly as possible,” the letter stated.
The statement also criticized American and European opposition to Morsi’s government.
Morsi, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood figure, became Egypt’s first democratically elected president in 2012 before being removed from power by the military in 2013.
Among the donors identified in the new report was Dr. Hany Saqr, who reportedly contributed at least $1,000 to El-Sayed’s Senate campaign.
Saqr signed the 2012 letter as a representative of the Egyptian Association in America. His Federal Election Commission contribution records document donations associated with his name.
The Free Beacon reported that Saqr appeared in a 1992 directory of alleged U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood leaders that federal prosecutors later introduced during the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case.
The publication also cited social media statements in which Saqr expressed hostility toward Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who led the military removal of Morsi.
Another reported contributor, Dr. Hesham Gayar, works in oncology and proton therapy at Michigan’s Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute.
Gayar was identified as a representative of the Egyptian Foundation on the 2012 letter and reportedly contributed at least $7,000 to El-Sayed’s current Senate campaign.
Campaign finance filings also showed approximately $6,600 connected to El-Sayed’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign, including $1,600 for catering services, according to the Free Beacon.
Additional contributors identified in the report included Ahmed Shehata, Dr. Khaled Elsayes, Dr. Azmy Allam and Dr. Amr Abbas.
Shehata, identified as chief executive officer of Islamic Relief USA in an archived organizational announcement, reportedly contributed $500 to El-Sayed’s Senate campaign and another $500 to his 2018 gubernatorial campaign.
In a December 2013 commentary for Roll Call, Shehata criticized the Egyptian government’s treatment of Muslim Brotherhood supporters following Morsi’s removal.
He subsequently challenged efforts to designate the organization as a terrorist group.
The Free Beacon reported that Elsayes contributed $2,750 to El-Sayed’s Senate campaign, while Allam gave $1,000 to the Senate campaign and another $1,000 during the 2018 governor’s race.
Abbas reportedly donated $5,500 to the earlier gubernatorial campaign.
However, Elsayes disputed the publication’s account of his involvement in the 2012 statement, acknowledging his campaign contribution while denying that he had signed the letter.
“I didn’t sign anything to support Morsi and didn’t even like his policies,” Elsayes told the Free Beacon.
“The only explanation was that Morsi supporters were including some names who are known as successful Egyptian expats to support his policies.”
His denial introduces uncertainty about whether every individual named on the original statement personally approved its contents.
The controversy has become a recurring issue in the Michigan Senate campaign, with Rogers questioning El-Sayed’s past political associations and financial supporters.
During Wednesday’s televised debate, Rogers accused his opponent of accepting support from individuals linked to Islamist organizations.
“So, being bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood, having donors to his campaign from Hamas that support Hezbollah, is not a problem?” Rogers said.
“If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know: Are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas? You can grin, and you can smile, and you can talk real pretty, but I’m going to tell you what, that is a risk to our national security.”
The allegations were also covered in Breitbart’s account of the debate.
El-Sayed rejected the suggestion that he has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and challenged Rogers for questioning his loyalty to the United States.
“He keeps raising this question about this association with an organization I’ve never been a part of because of my mom who’s a nurse in Missouri?” El-Sayed said during the debate. “To bring into question my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you.”
El-Sayed has also addressed questions involving his half-sister’s previous social media statements about family connections to Muslim Brotherhood activism.
During an earlier interview, he rejected allegations that his family maintains organizational ties to the movement.
At an Oct. 17 town hall, El-Sayed explicitly agreed when asked whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. PolitiFact reviewed the exchange and determined that Rogers’ subsequent assertion that El-Sayed had refused to disavow the organization was false.
The 2012 letter and campaign finance records raise questions about El-Sayed’s past political views and his relationships with certain donors. They do not, however, establish that the candidate belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood or that the contributions constitute illegal financing.
The Free Beacon reported that El-Sayed’s campaign had not answered its questions about his reported signature on the 2012 letter.
With Election Day approaching, the controversy has become another point of contention between the candidates as they debate national security, foreign policy and the relevance of their past associations to public office.
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